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Class _
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Copyright ]^°

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

R. L. STEVENSON

A CHRISTMAS SERMON

^S TRIPLEX

PRAYERS WRITTEN
AT VAILIMA

PRAYERS WRITTEN AT VAILIMA

BY

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

PRAYERS

WRITTEN AT VAILIMA

BY

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

WITH

AN INTRODUCTION BY

MRS. STEVENSON

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER's SONS

MDCCCCIIII

COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS

^&

LIBRaKY at CONGRESS
Two Cupiee Recaived

MAR 23 1904

J Cof*yrigrht Entry
CLASS ^ XXc. Na
CO»»Y B

D. B. UPDIKE, THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON

(^

CONTENTS

FOR SUCCESS I
FOR GRACE 3
. vAT MORNING 4
^^ EVENING 5
ANOTHER FOR EVENING 7
IN TIME OF RAIN 8
ANOTHER IN TIME OF RAIN 9
BEFORE A TEMPORARY SEPARA-
TION 10
FOR FRIENDS II
FOR THE FAMILY 12
SUNDAY 14
FOR SELF-BLAME 16
FOR SELF-FORGETFULNESS 18
FOR RENEWAL OF JOY 19

INTRODUCTION

IN every Samoan household the day
is closed with prayer and the sing-
ing of hymns. The omission of this sa-
cred duty would indicate not only a
lack of religious training in the house
chief, but a shameless disregard of all
that is reputable in Samoan social life.
No doubt, to many, the evening service
is no more than a duty fulfilled. The
child who says his prayer at his mo-
ther s knee can have no real conception
of the meaning of the words he lisps
so readily, yet he goes to his little bed
with a sense of heavenly protection that
he would miss were the prayer forgot-
ten. The average Samoan is but a

large?' child in most things, and would
lay an uneasy head on his wooden pil-
low if he had not joined, even perfunc-
torily, in the evening service. With my
husband, prayer, the diredl appeal, was
a necessity. When he was happy he felt
impelled to offer thanks for that un-
deserved joy; when in sorrow, or pain,
to call for strength to bear what must
be borne.

Vailima lay up some three miles of
con tinual rise from Apia , and more than
half that distance from^ the nearest vil-
lage. It was a long way for a tired man
to walk down every evening with the
sole purpose of joining in family wor-
ship ; and the road through the bush was
dark, and, to the Samoan imagination,
beset with supernatural terrors. Where-
l viii ]

fore, as soon as our household had fallen
into a regular routine, and the bonds of
Samoan family life began to draw us
more closely together, Tusitalafelt the
necessity of including our retainers in
our evening devotions. I suppose ours
was the only white man's family in all
Samoa, except those of the mission-
aries, where the day naturally ended
with this homely, patriarchal custom.
Not only were the religious scruples of
the natives satisfied, but what zve did
not foresee, our own respedtability —
and incidentally that of our retainers —
became assured, and the influence of
Tusitala increased tenfold.

After all work and meals were
finished, the ''pu," or war conch, was
sounded from the back veranda and the

front, so that it might be heard by all.
I don't think it ever occurred to us that
there was any incongruity in the use of
the war conch for the peaceful invita-
tion to prayer. In response to its sum-
mons the white members of the family
took their usual places, in one end of
the large hall, while the Samoans —
men, women and children — trooped in
through all the open doors, some carry-
ing lanterns if the evening were dark,
all moving quietly and dropping with
Samoan decorum in a wide semicircle
on the floor beneath a great lamp that
hung from the ceiling. The service be-
gan by my son reading a chapter from
the Samoan Bible, Tusitala following
with a prayer in English, sometimes
impromptu, but more often from the

1^1

notes in this little book, interpolating,
or changing with the circumstances of
the day. Then came the singing of one
or more hymns in the native tongue,
and the recitation in concert of the
Lord's Prayer, also in Samoan. Many
of these hymns were set to ancient tunes
very wild and warlike and strangely
at variance with the missionary words.
Sometimes a passing band of hostile
warriors, with blackened faces , would
peer in at us through the open win-
dows,and often we were forced to pause
until the strangely savage, monotonous
noise of the native drums had ceased;
but no Samoan, nor, I trust, white per-
son , changed his reverent attitude. Once,
I remember a look of surprised dismay

crossing the countenance of Tusitala
Cxi 3

zvhen my son, contrary to his usual
custom of reading the next chapter fol-
lowing that of yesterday , turned back
the leaves of his Bible to find a chapter
fiercely denunciatory, and only too ap-
plicable to the foreign dictators of dis-
tracted Samoa. On another occasion the
chief, himself, brought the service to a
sudden check. He had just learned of
the treacherous conduct of one in whom
he had every reason to trust. That even-
ing the prayer seemed unusually short
and formal. As the singing stopped he
arose abruptly and left the room. I has-
tened after him, fearing some sudden
illness. " What is it?" I asked. " It is
this,'' was the reply ; *' lam not yet fit to
say ' Forgive us our trespasses as we for-
give those who trespass against us.'**

It is with natural reluctance that I
touch upon the last prayer of my hus-
band's life. Many have supposed that
he showed, in the wording of this prayer,
that he had some premonition of his ap-
proaching death. I am sure he had no
such premonition. It was I who told
the assembled family that I felt an im-
pending disaster approaching nearer
and nearer. Any Scot will understand
that my statement was received seri-
ously. It could not be, we thought, that
danger threatened any one within the
house; but Mr. Graham Balfour, my
husband's cousin, very near and dear to
us, was away on a perilous cruise. Our
fears followed the various vessels, more
or less unseaworthy, in which he was

making his way from island to island
[ xiii ]

to the atoll where the exiled king, Ma-
taafa, was at that time imprisoned. In
my husband's last prayer, the night be-
fore his death, he asked that we should
be given strength to bear the loss of this
dear friend, should such a sorrow befall
us.

PRAYERS

For Succefs

'ORD, behold our family here
assembled. We thank Thee
for this place in which we
dwell ; for the love that unites us ; for
the peace accorded us this day ; for
the hope with which we expeft the
morrow ; for the health , the work , the
food, and the bright skies, that make
our lives delightful ; for our friends in
all parts of the earth, and our friendly
helpers in this foreign isle. Let peace
abound in our small company. Purge
out of every heart the lurking grudge.
Give us grace and strength to for-
bear and to persevere. Offenders,
give us the grace to accept and to for-
give offenders. Forgetful ourselves,

CO

help us to bear cheerfully the forget-
fulness of others. Give us courage
and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare
to us our friends, soften to us our ene-
mies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our
innocent endeavours. If it may not,
give us the strength to encounter that
which is to come, that we be brave
in peril, constant in tribulation, tem-
perate in wrath, and in all changes
of fortune, and down to the gates of
death, loyal and loving one to an-
other. As the clay to the potter, as
the windmill to the wind, as children
of their sire, we beseech of Thee this
help and mercy for Christ's sake.

CO

For Grace

RANT that we here before
Thee may be set free from
the fear of vicissitude and the
fear of death , may finish what remains
before us of our course without dis-
honour to ourselves or hurt to others,
and, when the day comes, may die in
peace. Deliver us from fear and fa-
vour: from mean hopes and cheap
pleasures. Have mercy on each in his
deficiency ; let him be not cast down ;
support the stumbling on the way,
and give at last rest to the weary.

ts-2

At Morning

5J^™jgHE day returns and brings
^M K^ us the petty round of irri-
^i^s'^y^ taring concerns and duties.
Help us to play the man, help us to
perform them with laughter and kind
faces, let cheerfulness abound with
industry. Give us to go blithely on our
business all this day, bring us to our
resring beds weary and content and
undishonoured, and grant us in the
end the gift of sleep.

1:43

Evening

E come before Thee, O Lord,
in the end of thy day with
thanksgiving.

Our beloved in the far parts of the
earth, those who are now beginning
the labours of the day what time we
end them, and those with whom the
sun now stands at the point of noon,
bless, help, console, and prosper
them.

Our guard is relieved, the service
of the day is over, and the hour come
to rest. We resign into thy hands
our sleeping bodies, our cold hearths
and open doors. Give us to awake
with smiles, give us to labour smiling.
As the sun returns in the east, so let
our patience be renewed with dawn ;
as the sun lightens the world, so let

[51!

our loving-kindness make bright this
house of our habitation.

C6]

Another for Evening

[ORD, receive our supplica-
tions for this house, family,
and country. Proteft the in-
nocent, restrain the greedy and the
treacherous, lead us out of our tribu-
lation into a quiet land.

Look down upon ourselves and up-
on our absent dear ones. Help us and
them ; prolong our days in peace and
honour. Give us health, food, bright
weather, and light hearts. In what we
meditate of evil, frustrate our will;
in what of good, further our endea-
vours. Cause injuries to be forgot and
benefits to be remembered.

Let us lie down without fear and
awake and arise with exultation. For
his sake, in whose words we now
conclude.

In Time of Rain

E thank Thee, Lord, for the
glory of the late days and
the excellentfaceof thy sun.
We thank Thee for good news re-
ceived. We thank Thee for the plea-
sures we have enjoyed and for those
we have been able to confer. 1 And
now, when the clouds gather and the
rain impends over the forest and our
house, permit us not to be cast down ;
let us not lose the savour of past mer-
cies and past pleasures ; but, like the
voice of a bird singing in the rain, let
grateful memory survive in the hour
of darkness. If there be in front of us
any painful duty, strengthen us with
the grace of courage ; if any aft of
mercy, teach us tenderness and pa-
tience.

[8]

Another in Time of Rain

'ORD, Thou sendest down
rain upon the uncounted
millions of the forest, and
givest the trees to drink exceedingly.
We are here upon this isle a few hand-
fuls of men, and how many myriads
upon myriadsof stalwart trees ! Teach
us the lesson of the trees. The sea
around us, which this rain recruits,
teems with the race offish; teach us.
Lord, the meaning of the fishes. Let
us see ourselves for what we are, one
out of the countless number of the
clans of thy handiwork. When we
would despair, let us remember that
these also please and serve Thee.

C93

Before a Temporary Separation

^^=^gO-DAY we go forth sepa-
^n ^^ rate, some of us to pleasure,
^^»^% some of us to worship, some
upon duty. Go with us, our guide and
angel ; hold Thou before us in our di-
vided paths the mark of our low call-
ing, still to be true to what small best
we can attain to. Help us in that, our
maker, the dispenser of events —
Thou, of the vast designs, in which
we blindly labour, suffer us to be so
far constant to ourselves and our be-
loved.

Cio]

For Friends

OR our absent loved ones we
implore thy loving-kind-
ness. Keep them in life, keep
them in growing honour ; and for us,
grant that we remain worthy of their
love. For Christ's sake, let not our
beloved blush for us , nor we for them .
Grant us but that, and grant us cour-
age to endure lesser ills unshaken,
and to accept death, loss, and disap-
pointment as it were straws upon the
tide of life.

CiO

LefC.

For the Family

ID us, if it be thy will, in our
concerns. Have mercy on
this land and innocent peo-
ple. Help them who this day contend
in disappointment with their frailties.
Bless our family, bless our forest
house, bless our island helpers. Thou
who hast made for us this place of
ease and hope, accept and inflame our
gratitude ; help us to repay, in service
one to another, the debt of thine un-
merited benefits and mercies, so that
when the period of our stewardship
draws to a conclusion, when the win-
dows begin to be darkened, when the
bond of the family is to be loosed,
there shall be no bitterness of re-
morse in our farewells.

Help us to look back on the long

way that Thou hast brought us, on
the long days in which we have been
served not according to our deserts
but our desires ; on the pit and the
miry clay, the blackness of despair,
the horror of miscondu6l,from which
our feet have been plucked out. For
our sins forgiven or prevented, for
our shame unpublished, we bless and
thank Thee, O God. Help us yet
again and ever. So order events, so
strengthen our frailty, as that day by
day we shall come before Thee with
this song of gratitude, and in the end
we be dismissed with honour. In their
weakness and their fear, the vessels
of thy handiwork so pray to Thee, so
praise Thee. Amen.

C^3^

Sunday

E beseech Thee, Lord, to be-
hold us with favour, folk of
many families and nations
gathered together in the peace of this
roof, weak men and women subsist-
ing under the covert of thy patience.
Be patient still ; suffer us yet awhile
longer; — with our broken purposes
of good, with our idle endeavours
against evil, suffer us awhile longer
to endure and ( if it may be ) help us
to do better. Bless to us our extraor-
dinary mercies ; if the day come when
these must be taken, brace us to play
the man under affliction. Bewith our
friends, be with ourselves. Go with
each of us to rest ; if any awJKe, tem-
per to them the dark hours of watch-
ing ; and when the day returns, re-

turn to us, our sun and comforter, and
call us up with morning faces and
with morning hearts — eager to la-
bour— eager to be happy, if happi-
ness shall be our portion — and if the
day be marked for sorrow, strong to
endure it.

We thank Thee and praise Thee ;
and in the words of him to whom this
day is sacred, close our oblation.

Cis]

For Self- Blame

'ORD, enlighten us to see the
beam that is in our own eye,
and blind us to the mote that
is in our brother's. Let us feel our
offences with our hands, make them
great and bright before us like the
sun, make us eat them and drink them
for our diet. Blind us to the offences
of our beloved, cleanse them from
our memories, take them out of our
mouths for ever. Let all here before
Thee carry and measure with the
false balances of love, and be in their
own eyes and in all conjunftures the
most guilty. Help us at the same time
with the grace of courage, that we be
none of us cast down when we sit la-
menting amid the ruins of our happi-
ness or our integrity : touch us with

fire from the altar, that we may be
up and doing to rebuild our city: in
the name and by the method of him
in whose words of prayer we now
conclude.

cnn

For Self-Forgetfulnefs

ORD, the creatures of thy
hand, thy disinherited chil-
dren, come before Thee
with their incoherent wishes and re-
grets : Children we are, children we
shall be, till our mother the earth hath
fed upon our bones. Accept us, cor-
re6l us, guide us, thy guilty innocents.
Dry our vain tears, wipe out our vain
resentments, help our yet vainer ef-
forts. If there be any here, sulking as
children will, deal with and enlighten
him. Make it day about that person,
so that he shall see himself and be
ashamed. Make it heaven about him.
Lord, by the only way to heaven, for-
getfulness of self, and make it day
about his neighbours, so that they
shall help, not hinder him.

c;i8 3

For Renewal of Joy

E are evil, O God, and help
us to see it and amend. We
are good, and help us to be
better. Look down upon thy servants
with a patient eye, even as Thou
sendest sun and rain; look down, call
upon the dry bones, quicken, enliven;
recreate in us the soul of service, the
spirit of peace; renew in us the sense
of joy.

[19]

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